Schools
NCC Adjunct’s Union Hits Picket Line
Instructors on strike after the Nassau Community College board votes down proposed contract settlement.
One day after adjunct professors at Nassau Community College went on strike, students reported as usual, with college officials taking attendance in classes without a teacher.
The professors went on strike after the college’s board of trustees rejected a proposed settlement that called for wage increases of 4.9 percent every year for eight years, according to a Newsday report.
Adjunct Faculty Association (AFA) president Charles Loiacono said the defeated "memorandum of agreement" covered eight years - retroactive to 2011 through 2018, according to the report.
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"Despite the best efforts of the college to negotiate a new contract with the part-time faculty members, some of our instructors are now engaged in an illegal strike," Dr. Saunders said.
Dr. Jorge Gardyn, vice chair of the NCC board of trustees, told Patch that the contract issues need to be resolved at the bargaining table and not on the picket line.
"That is why we have been to arbitration, mediation and fact finding over the last three years with the AFA and tried to maintain open lines of communication," he said, adding that NCC's mission is to protect the 24,000 students that it serves.
Dr. Jorge Gardyn said the board did not feel their proposal served that interest.
"As vice chair of the College Board of Trustees, I will continue our efforts to reach out to the AFA leadership so that productive negotiations can commence and move forward," he said.
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A message on the AFA website Tuesday asked all members to picket during their regular class hours and "all other times of availability" to "show unity and strength."
Public employees are not permitted to strike under the Taylor Law; those that do will be fined.
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